The invention relates to a method for providing route data, describing a route for a motor vehicle. The invention also relates to a ground-based device.
It is known that a motor vehicle itself senses its surroundings using cameras, ultrasonic sensors, etc., and that a representation of the surroundings is then provided to the vehicle driver in the motor vehicle. This is known, for example, from DE 10 2008 034 594 A1 and from DE 10 2008 034 606 A1. It is disadvantageous here that such parts of the route which are located outside the field of vision or measuring range of the vehicle cannot be sensed in the motor vehicle.
DE 10 2007 042 793 A1 relates to a method for providing driving operating data, in which a network is provided for wireless exchange of driving operating data between vehicles. A motor vehicle determines absolute driving operating data and this absolute driving operating data is transmitted from the motor vehicle to another motor vehicle.
Google® and other companies have in the past few years produced complete recordings of the roads of some towns in Germany and in other countries. This data is available via the Internet. This data is stored centrally at the companies. A motor vehicle could theoretically also access this data. However, a disadvantage here is that the recorded images reflect random situations and are not necessarily suitable for assisting a vehicle driver or an automatic vehicle guidance system in guiding the vehicle.
There are many situations in which it would be desirable if information relating to route areas which were not located in the current field of vision of the driver of the vehicle or within the sensing range of the sensors of the vehicle were available in a motor vehicle, specifically as a function of whether or not other motor vehicles can sense these areas. This applies, in particular, also in the private or semi-private spheres—for example, anyone wishing to reverse into the entry road of a house or wishing to allow a parking aid to carry out such a reversing maneuver might require information about the entry road of the house; in a multistorey car park there are often excessively narrow points, and in such a context it would be desirable to have prior knowledge about narrow points; and this also applies when traveling between narrow alleyways or streets with poor visibility.
EP 2 136 346 A2 describes a parking system for navigating a vehicle which is looking for a parking space to a free parking space in which information about available free parking spaces is requested from other vehicles in the traffic, which vehicles then directly transmit this information to the vehicle which is looking for a parking space, or transmit it indirectly to the vehicle which is looking for a parking space via a control center. In this context, the control center can first collect the information from one or more vehicles looking for a parking space and prepare this information for the vehicles looking for a parking space and subsequently transmit it.
DE 10 2004 032 346 A1 describes a vehicle guiding system for directing vehicles to free parking spaces in multistorey car parks. In this context, information about the free parking spaces is detected, for example by contact loops, and the information as to whether parking spaces are occupied or free is transmitted to a control apparatus. The control apparatus is connected to a transmitting apparatus which transmits the information about the free parking spaces to an output unit in a vehicle.
EP 1 150 266 A2 describes a system for collecting and distributing road surface information. The road surface information is transmitted here from vehicles, for example in the form of friction coefficients of a road or road section being traveled on at that particular moment. The friction coefficient of the road being traveled on at that particular moment is then transmitted from a respective vehicle and the position information of the respective road is transmitted to a “host computer”, for example via the Internet. Said “host computer” collects the information about the friction coefficients of respective associated roads or road sections and transmits this information in turn to vehicles which are about to travel on the corresponding road section. The information is then used, for example, as input parameters for controlling the ABS.
DE 10 2008 059 278 A1 describes a method for updating data of a navigation system in which updated data from local data transmission stations is transmitted to the data memory of the navigation system and stored. This data is then transmitted to a central service provider which can in turn pass this data on to all its users.